AD 43-410 Roman

At the time of the Roman invasion, south-western England was a region of small, scattered settlements. Minerals in Cornwall, good agricultural land in Somerset and Gloucestershire, and a coastline open to cross-channel trade were its advantages. The tribes, the Belgae (modern Wiltshire), Durotriges (modern Dorset) and Dumnonii (modern Devon and Cornwall) were warlike but disunited. Soon after the invasion the future emperor Vespasian was sent with the IInd Augusta Legion to subdue the region. He overcame the great hillfort of Maiden Castle in Dorset in AD 44/5, which the Romans then occupied until the 60s. By 55 a legionary fortress was established on the site of modern Exeter.

In 75, the army left the fortress, signalling the end of permanent military occupation in the south-west. By about 80 the town of Isca Dumnoniorum had been founded which administered the area covered by the modern counties of Devon and Cornwall. Local Romano-British administrations were left in towns, most of which had started as military bases, like Durnovaria (Dorchester), Corinium (Cirencester) and Glevum (Gloucester). In the 3rd century, Britain was split into two provinces, each with two parts, and Corinium became the capital of Britannia Prima. Aquae Sulis (Bath), with its hot springs, had been a major healing shrine before the Romans arrived and continued to be popular, with new buildings being put up in the early 4th century.